“You did this to yourself, Simone. Now, please, don’t bother me again.”
With that, I hung up the phone. It felt good to finally stand up for myself. To get my life back in order. Almost back into what it was before. I should have been happy. Content.
But my heart wasn’t in it. Something was missing there. Someone.
I missed Sebastian. But there was nothing I could do about that.
CHAPTER38
ELLY
“Elly, can you open the door please?” Mom called from the other room. I had just finished training so was just about to head to the bathroom when I heard theding-dongfrom the front door.
“Coming.” I walked briskly to the door, expecting a late package or the neighbors coming to visit Mom. But there was no one there. No postman. No neighbor with a pie.
Only a tennis racket. Strange.
I took a step out to our front porch and glanced both ways. No one. Even more strange.
The tennis racket looked familiar. I picked it up. Around its base was a note tied with a white ribbon. I undid the ribbon and uncurled the note.
I’ll be waiting by the waves for as long as I need to.
My heart began to beat faster. That’s why the tennis racket seemed familiar. It was the tennis racket I had used back in…
I shook my head.But it can’t be, can it?
Sebastian? Sebastian was in Florida. Sebastian had come to my house? Sebastian was…
No. It sounded too much like a movie.
But…there was only one way to find out.
* * *
The sun was just setting when I finally reached the beach. It was the first time I’d been there since arriving back in Florida, and walking along the sand felt both familiar and alien. It felt different. It didn’t feel like Cartagena.
What was more alien was the man I’d come to know in what felt like another life standing at the shoreline, the froth covering his feet. He looked surprised to see me there.
“I didn’t think you would come,” he admitted.
Even though only two weeks had passed since we’d last seen each other, it felt like a lifetime. Sebastian wasn’t wearing his usual prim and proper outfits. Instead, he was dressed in a casual shirt and jeans.
He looked so normal, just standing there in the sand, in Florida of all places, talking to me. So normal that I would have a strong urge to hug him tight even though during our last talk, he had shattered my heart into pieces. He had done the thing I’d been so scared he would, but still, I knew, even before he had said anything, that I forgave him.
“You should have known I would,” I replied.
His eyes found mine. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He turned his face away for a minute, as if looking at me brought him physical pain that he didn’t want to show me. As if I was the sun, burning his eyes as he crossed the Sahara.
And yet, he turned back to me.
“Elly…” he began again, reaching for my hand. I gave it to him. Inside the coves of his hands, mine felt safe, like they belonged. “I’m so sorry, Elly. For everything. For being such a jerk to you. For treating you like a thing, like a transaction. For making you do something you didn’t want to. For hurting you when all you were doing was protecting me from doing something so wrong against my family. For that time at the beach. No, for both times. I said so many things in anger. When really, Elly…all I should have done is kiss you back…”
His voice was soft, almost choking as he looked deep into my eyes.
“I forgive you, Sebastian.” I managed to say. Because I did. I forgave him wholeheartedly.
“Elly. Watching you walk away that night broke me more than losing the company. I don’t care about that, I can’t believe I ever thought I could care about it when all I’ve cared about ever since I saw you in that lobby is you. Is making you smile and laugh. Is loving you, Elly. I love you.”